Crypto industry donates millions to the German parliamentary election campaign
A crypto trading platform distributes a large donation package to German political parties. Critics fear a similar influence as in the USA.
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In the US presidential election campaign, the influence of donors from the crypto industry was clearly noticeable when President-elect Donald Trump suddenly changed his initial skepticism towards Bitcoin to approval. At least on a small scale, the crypto industry could also try to exert influence in the German parliamentary election campaign. A donation from the crypto trading platform Bitpanda from Vienna, which according to a media report has donated a total of 1.75 million euros to the CDU, CSU, SPD and FDP, currently stands out. It is said to be one of the largest donation packages in the election campaign.
According to Capital, Bitpanda founder Eric Demuth justifies the financial support by wanting to strengthen democratic structures and support parties in building up expertise in innovation topics. The 37-year-old left out the Greens, as he believes they have a less convincing approach to digital transformation.
Crypto mood varies in politics
The FDP in particular, with top candidate Christian Lindner, has so far shown itself to be crypto-friendly and is calling for the inclusion of crypto assets in the reserves of central banks. The Greens, on the other hand, are calling for the abolition of the one-year limit for tax-free crypto profits and have also been rather critical of crypto in EU policy to date.
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The fintech company Bitpanda was founded in 2014 by Demuth and two colleagues. The investment platform enables trading in shares, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, crypto indices, commodities and precious metals. In 2022, Bitpanda received a crypto custody license from the German Bafin.
LobbyControl calls for a cap on donations
The non-profit organization LobbyControl takes a critical view of Demuth's donation: “Even if the donation itself is not directly linked to a political demand, we can assume a certain influence with such high donation amounts. Especially when there is also massive lobbying at the same time,” it said in a statement. The crypto sector donated more than a quarter of a billion US dollars during the US election campaign. LobbyControl is calling for a cap on party donations in Germany.
(mki)
